


homecoming

by andnowforyaya



Series: or forever hold your peace (kiho) [2]
Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Angst, Forbidden Love, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Drug Use, M/M, Organized Crime, probably
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-06-12
Packaged: 2018-11-13 02:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11175324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/andnowforyaya/pseuds/andnowforyaya
Summary: “I found him,” he said without preamble. He had to lean close to Hoseok’s ear in order to be heard over the music. “I found him.”Hoseok didn’t need a name to know to whom Minhyuk was referring.





	homecoming

**Author's Note:**

> for the 'gang/mafia/crime' square in kiho bingo

The crowd was good tonight, on the younger side and dressed to impress. The women teetered in their heels that were like knives and the men threw their money around, buying shots and drinks and dances like that was something the women actually wanted. As though knowing the right drink to buy for a beautiful woman might cement her affections for you. Who knows? Maybe it would, but Hoseok didn’t care. Affections were something Hoseok couldn't afford right now, not with what he'd done. He sipped at his drink: whiskey, one ice cube.

His father owned multiple clubs and lounges in Seoul and Busan. Most of the clubs were just that, but there were a few that doubled as more in their basement levels and backrooms. Over the years, his father had introduced Hoseok to a few of these clubs, had trusted him with the inner secrets of his family.

His trust was something Hoseok both craved and hated craving. What did it mean that Hoseok wanted the affection of a man who could, without blinking an eye, order a stranger who had slighted him in traffic to be tracked and killed?

He gripped the railing, his rings digging into the flesh of his fingers. He was overlooking the dance floor and bar from the safety and luxury of the VIP lounge, keeping an eye on the bouncers, the girls dancing in cages, the boys serving shots, the party-goers. Keeping an eye on Hyunwoo though he was behind him on one of the couches, nursing his own drink.

Everything reminded him of Kihyun. He remembered how smitten he’d been from the very beginning, when he’d seen Kihyun in one of his father’s clubs holding a tray of neon-colored shots at his shoulder and offering Hoseok a body shot, complimentary of course, since he was the son of the owner. It had been easy, then, because he’d just been a reveler and Kihyun had just been a beautiful warm vessel for Hoseok's body and pleasure. But in the morning things had changed. In the morning with the sun at Kihyun’s back and the sheets cool and smooth against their skin, Hoseok had fallen. He had never stopped falling.

It had been eight long, excruciating weeks. Two months of asking for proof of Kihyun’s safety and receiving only a patronizing glare from his father, who had expected by now for Hoseok to forget the other. Who was Kihyun when Hoseok had a woman like Kim Dasom by his side, waiting for him in bed every night?

Not that Hoseok had bedded his wife. He refused. He had kept his part of the deal in marrying her, and he frankly didn’t care if she thought he suffered from some sort of dysfunction that prevented him from consummating their union. He held only a little bit of sympathy and compassion for her in that she didn’t know the true meaning behind their marriage and believed completely that the function of it had been to join two powerful families together in business and blood. She didn’t know about Kihyun at all. Though, Hoseok thought, she would be a fool not to suspect something was amiss. The more time that passed, the more Hoseok's father evaded his questions, the more Hoseok felt certain that his father hadn’t kept his part of the deal.

In the crowd below him, Hoseok spotted a familiar crown of bright blond hair bobbing through the mass of bodies and grinned. Minhyuk. Minhyuk could always make him smile.

He waited patiently as Minhyuk pushed his way through the crowd. People didn’t move out of his way as naturally as they did for people like Hyunwoo or Hoseok, so Minhyuk had learned to squeeze between the spaces. To fit into places as though he had always been there. Hoseok looked to the side and finished his drink in one long pull, and as soon as he set it down, a waiter was there to take the glass away. When he looked to his other side again, Minhyuk was already at his elbow, his eyes dark, his face uncharacteristically serious.

“I found him,” he said without preamble. He had to lean close to Hoseok’s ear in order to be heard over the music. “I found him.”

Hoseok didn’t need a name to know to whom Minhyuk was referring. He felt his heart drop to his feet, and his throat dried up. He hadn't expected any news, not after he had trained himself to manage his own hope as the weeks passed without any sign of Kihyun at all. He wished he had another drink to distract him from the feeling -- a war of golden-tinged hope and horrible fear inside of him, manifesting in the tightening pit of his stomach. He couldn’t react any larger than this, not with Hyunwoo in the lounge behind him, not with one of his father’s guards lurking near the stairs to the dance level. He put his mouth near Minhyuk’s ear and said, “Where? Is he safe?”

Minhyuk was leaning heavily against the railing. He looked down at the mass of people dancing together, writhing together. He shook his head.

Hoseok gripped the railing again so that he wouldn’t break something, his knuckles white. “Can you get him out?”

Minhyuk paused, his brain working in ways that Hoseok’s never could. He nodded once, but it was grim. “I’ll need help, though,” Minhyuk admitted. “He’s watched all the time. Even when -- even when he’s serving customers.”

Hoseok bit the inside of his cheek so hard he tasted blood, tasted metal. “Only people you trust,” Hoseok grit out through his teeth. “No one in the family.”

“I have a buddy,” Minhyuk said. “I’ll ask him.”

“Bring him to my apartment outside the city,” Hoseok said. He knew Minhyuk knew which one. The family owned multiple condos and apartment in Seoul, but there was only one place that Hoseok had purchased on his own, under a different name. It was a small, nondescript unit in a small building on the outskirts of Seoul, near the mountains. Only he and Minhyuk knew about it. Minhyuk nodded again.

“He might need medical attention,” Minhyuk said next, watching Hoseok carefully.

Hoseok fought against the burn in the back of his eyes, taking a heaving, deep breath. “We can’t involve anyone else,” Hoseok said finally. “We can’t risk my father finding out. Not before we have a chance to get away. We’ll get to that when it comes.”

Minhyuk said nothing. He wanted to push Hoseok on this, Hoseok could tell, but he had already caused Hoseok enough anguish. Minhyuk believed it was his fault Kihyun was at the wedding to begin with, so it was his fault that Kihyun had been caught. He held his tongue on it. “Give me three days,” he said.

“Okay,” Hoseok said, as Minhyuk turned to go. He darted his hand out to catch Minhyuk by the shoulder, and his friend stopped, turning to face him. “Thank you,” Hoseok said, feeling that awful burn in the back of his eyes again.

Minhyuk’s face softened. He said, “He was my friend, too.”

.

In the three days Hoseok gave Minhyuk, he had to make his own arrangements. He conjured up a client meeting he had to take in Tokyo and told everyone where he’d be going and for how long. Dasom helped him to pack. His father asked him questions about the client but Hoseok only said he was someone he was cultivating and still working to gain his trust. Hoseok went so far as to actually travel to the other country, to step foot onto its soil and make an appearance and check into the hotel where he’d be staying. Then he flew back to Seoul using a different name.

He rented a car and drove out to the apartment on the outskirts of Seoul. He only visited the place sparingly, even less now that Kihyun was -- gone. But Kihyun would be back soon, and Hoseok needed to make sure the apartment was livable again.

So he arrived a day early, laden with groceries and toiletries and set to work filling the cabinets and the refrigerator with edible food, checking to see that the water ran clear, making sure there were fresh sheets on the bed and clean cushions on the couch. It was a small, intimate apartment, just one bedroom, one bathroom, and a kitchen that opened up into a tiny living room with space enough only for one couch, a coffee table, and a bookcase. Hoseok didn’t even have a television here.

Then, he waited. 

He charged his second phone and sat on his couch as the battery filled, and he flipped through the pictures he found. Kihyun looking out of this window, Kihyun brushing his teeth in the bathroom, Kihyun hiding his smile behind the covers as he awoke to Hoseok beside him in bed. As the sun set behind the mountains, Hoseok found himself flipping through the pictures again and again, his thumb brushing over Kihyun's tiny cheeks in the photos. He hadn’t allowed himself to do this after the wedding. He hadn’t allowed himself to think too much, to believe too much. It only made the hole in his heart large and black and drip in sadness and poison. He had told himself Kihyun was safe, though he had never stopped looking, never stopped having Minhyuk look for him when he could not do it himself.

Now he knew Kihyun wasn’t safe. Hope formed in a small bubble in his chest and grew with every passing minute, and along with that hope, crippling anxiety. He didn't know how Minhyuk would bring Kihyun to him, what Kihyun would look like. If Kihyun still even wanted to see Hoseok at all. But what mattered was that Hoseok was going to make sure Kihyun was safe. From there, Kihyun could do whatever he wanted. He deserved that much, and Hoseok deserved nothing. If Hoseok had looked for him harder, if Hoseok had fought back against his father, if Hoseok had refused the marriage -- where would they be now? Would they be together, still? Would Kihyun be safe then? He didn’t know, but he thought he had made enough wrong choices now at Kihyun’s expense.

He didn't want to think about where Kihyun was or what had been done to him. Hoseok has seen the work of his father firsthand. Hoseok had never been very good at being brave, despite his family, despite the power and aura he exuded, but Kihyun had always been brave, bordering precocious. He had been so brave to come to the wedding, and Hoseok had been a coward. He was going to change that.

.

The sound of keys jangling outside the front door startled Hoseok awake. He was on the couch, his phone still in his hand, completely charged. He stood, wary, as the door opened, heart stopped in his throat and blinking the sleep out of his eyes. As soon as he saw who it was, he was wide awake.

“You're here,” Minhyuk said to Hoseok, grunting as he shifted the person draped over his back. He stepped through the threshold, and another man followed, closing the door behind them. “Couch,” Minhyuk said, pointing with his chin, and the stranger strode over with his long legs. He made Hoseok step out of the way so that he could throw a couple of the extra pillows on the couch to the floor, making room.

Hoseok couldn't breathe. Kihyun was draped over Minhyuk’s back, limp and looking like he could be sleeping. There was a long coat hugging his shoulders, but Hoseok thought he wasn't wearing much else underneath. He helped Minhyuk lower Kihyun onto the couch as gently as possible like he was laying someone into the ground. He choked on a sob as he touched Kihyun's face with reverent fingers.

“What's wrong with him?” he demanded when Kihyun was horizontal on the cushions. Kihyun was wearing black shorts that reached mid thigh. His eyes were still closed, his skin clammy and littered in marks, burns left behind by cigarettes and lighters, shallow cuts, bruises, some old and some fresh. The stranger threw the coat over Kihyun's chest to parody some form of decency.

“Drugged,” Minhyuk said. “But purposefully by us. He'll wake in a few hours.”

Hoseok stared, unmoving, drinking in Kihyun's face, his body. Now that he was here, Hoseok felt mired in place. Kihyun looked awful. There was no other way to describe him now. He'd lost the fullness of his cheeks, and the bones of his chest seemed ready to break through his skin. He was pale, and small, and Hoseok was reminded of the dead baby bird he'd seen once when he was still a child and playing in his backyard. He'd tried to scoop it up to put it back into its nest but his mother had happened upon him then and slapped the body out of his hands. He had cried then, and he cried now. It wasn't anyone's fault but Hoseok's own that Kihyun was like this, his precious baby bird, half dead on his couch.

He knelt on the floor at Kihyun's side, brushing the pads of his fingers over Kihyun's cheekbones and fearful he would cut right through the skin. Kihyun felt so delicate. He leaned forward to kiss Kihyun's forehead and sobbed when Kihyun just lay there, unknowing.

“Hoseok,” Minhyuk was saying. “Hoseok, Hyungwon and I have to go back and clean up the scene. Cover our tracks. Will you be okay with him?”

“What does he need?” Hoseok asked, unable to tear his eyes away from Kihyun. “Will he need anything?”

“I don't know,” Minhyuk said hesitantly.

Hyungwon chimed in, his voice smooth and low. “They kept him on dope. He'll need to detox over the next few days. Weeks, maybe. Will you be able to help him through that?”

“I think so,” Hoseok said, finding Kihyun's wrist under the coat and holding it in his hand carefully.

“We’ll stop by the hospital on the way back. Pick up something that will help,” Hyungwon said. It was clear he was experienced. Hoseok didn't have the wherewithal to wonder where Minhyuk had found him, he only felt grateful that Hyungwon could be so calm and thorough.

“Changkyun will help,” Hoseok said thickly through his tears. He hadn't wanted to involve anyone else, but it was clear they would need a professional to help Kihyun if what Hyungwon was saying was true. “He can get you what you need. What Kihyun needs.”

Hoseok didn't watch them leave. He heard the door close and the lock click into place. He shifted onto the couch and carefully moved Kihyun so that Kihyun's head was resting in Hoseok's lap, and then he waited, fingers carding through Kihyun's hair, for the other man to wake.

.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading. comments are appreciated <3


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